Sharing a few selected student writings, drafted during a Saturday Leadership Class, fifteen minute writing session – Fatima RJA Chaudhary

Fatima RJA Chaudhary
12th grade
If you don’t know what’s going on at the intersection
Before the little boys and girls preschool
And I don’t know what’s going on at the church or mosque
Then none of us will know
If you don’t know the cost of bread, eggs and milk
And I don’t know the cost of bread, eggs, and milk
Then none of us will know
If you don’t know the pain of broken heart has to guard,
As they weep, witnessing the destruction of their home,
Palace and people
And I don’t know of the pain a broken heart has to guard then None of us will know
If you don’t know of the sobering reality
Of not having enough money to feed the four young children
At the dinner table
And I don’t care enough about this reality
Then the people at our world are intentionally choosing to be blind
This will reveal a pattern
A vicious cycle of indifference
Corroding the heart and mind of America
Violence and war
Hate and racism
Greed and money
We will ask ourselves one day if it is too late
Let that not be today
Let that not be tomorrow
Let that not be now
Let us not be consumed yet so frantically and so easily
With our daily lives that we let ourselves get lost in the dark.